Countercultural Context for Gay Liberation, On the night of Sunday July 6, Randy Wicker, now 31 years old, joined Dick Leitsch at a Gay Power benefit for the Mattachine Society being held by the Electric Circus on its premises. "The Circus" was then the most popular countercultural discotheque in Manhattan. Underground Uplift Unlimited was right across the street from it. UUU was the headquarters of the button-manufacturing business that Wicker and his partner Peter Ogren ran out of 28 St. Marks Place in the East Village. In addition to its own buttons, it sold marijuana-smoking paraphernalia, psychedelic posters, and avant-garde periodicals. In the jargon of its day, it was known as a "head shop. Just after midnight, the music stopped, the house-lights went on, and Wicker stepped onto a platform. For a brief, shining moment, he felt like the world had caught up with him. Then he began to speak. In the late 1950s, Charlie Hayden became politicized about his homosexuality while involved in liberal student activism at the University of Texas in Austin. Even before moving to Manhattan he joined the Mattachine Society, which had 15 members at this time. After discovering that all of MSNY’s officers used pseudonyms for their organizational work, Hayden discussed this matter with his father. When his father asked him to keep the family name out of his homosexual politics, he chose the name Randy Wicker. Later he would legally change his name to Randolfe Hayden Wicker. Toby Marotta revisits Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village, Toby Marotta Community Roots Archive, American push for civil rights for homosexuals, American push for civil rights for homophile movement, Stonewall grassroots drive for freedom, Stonewall grassroots drive for power, Stonewall grassroots drive for community. Tobymarotta.com and the Stonewall Riot, Tobymarotta.com and the gay liberation movement, Tobymarotta.com and a closer look at civil rights.